Reset! Series

I'm a Mac guy. I love my Mac toys. I've got a Mac watch, I've got my phone, I've got my iPad

that I actually run the presentation with on Sunday morning. I enjoy my Mac toys until I get the

little colorful wheel on my computer that freezes my computer and I can't do anything and I'm

stuck. I know then I have to reset my computer, I have to restart it. And when I restart it, what

happens is the code is able to form again from the beginning up and create a clean program.

Because what happens in life is that the applications start to conflict with each other and we end

up with that wheel of death. I think there's some similarities between that and our Christian life.

You know, when God created the world, He created this beautiful place, this Garden of Eden in

this world. But it was soon broken by sin. And sin as it develops starts to corrupt things. So we

have this wheel of death that we even see in our lives today. People who are addicted, they see –

oh there's the wheel of death. Or we see people who are overcome by anxiety – oh, there's the

wheel of death. Or marriages that are being troubled – oh, there's the wheel of death. Or finances

that are struggling – oh, there's the wheel of death. When we see that brokenness that exists in

our world, we need to reset our lives. We need to restart our computers, so to speak. It doesn't

mean that all the problems go away, but it does allow us to come fresh in the way we approach

them.

You see, there is another system trying to reset our world. It's called worldliness or the world

system. The world system is a collection of people who are trying to organize the world without

the light of God's word. As they do, they continually end up with problems. Problems that show

this wheel of death that happens because of a misunderstanding or because of a lack of

understanding of the light of God's word in our lives. We need this reset.

In our story today in Nehemiah, the people are resetting. You remember last week we talked

about how the people came together on day one. When they came together on day one, they read

the scriptures and studied them in small groups, it seems, as it was all explained to them for

about four or five hours. It was like a retreat experience for them as they were getting to know

God's word. That was day one. And when they saw God's word, they were grieving about it.

They said, “Oh man, we've really made some mistakes here.” Nehemiah’s response, remember,

was – Don't grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So they're resetting themselves. That

was day one.

I know you're eager to see the next day. That's day two. That's what we're going to look at today.

What happens to these people now on day two? They go to this big retreat experience on day

one. And then what do they do on day two? I know you're eager to get into God's word as I am.

So let me read the six verses starting in verse 13. Would you please stand with me in honor of

God's word? Nehemiah 8, starting in verse 13.

On the second day the heads of fathers' houses of all the people, with the priests and the Levites,

came together to Ezra the scribe in order to study the words of the Law. And they found it written

in the Law that the Lord had commanded by Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in

booths during the feast of the seventh month, and that they should proclaim it and publish it in

all their towns and in Jerusalem, “Go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive,

myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.” So the people went out and

brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the

courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of

Ephraim. And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and

lived in the booths, for from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel

had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing. And day by day, from the first day to the

last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. They kept the feast seven days, and on the